A 42-year-old woman was sentenced this Tuesday in the city of Santa Fe to three years in prison for illegal practice of medicine, minor injuries and fraud, because she posed as a doctor and treated patients in seven locations in the province, informed judicial spokesmen.
This is Natalí Hurí de Simone, who was sentenced in an abbreviated trial after she failed to comply with the scope of a suspended trial (also known as probation), for which she was arrested in September of last year.
The woman was accused of caring for patients without a title or license plate in the cities of Santa Fe, Santo Tomé, Romang, Laguna Paiva and Esperanza, and in the communes of Sarmiento and La Pelada.
Hurí was also convicted of the crime of minor injuries after causing burns on the face of a woman she treated at a beauty center.
The sentence was resolved by Judge Jorge Patrizi after an investigation by the Esperanza Fiscal Unit of the Public Ministry of the Accusation (MPA).
In 2019, the woman signed a suspended trial trial but failed to comply with the rules of conduct that were imposed on her, so in September of last year she was deprived of her liberty and now the sentence was imposed.
Between 2018 and 2021, Hurí provided services as an on-call doctor, issued diagnoses, performed treatments, and administered and prescribed medications on several occasions.
The Prosecutor’s Office specified that the condemned woman illegally practiced the profession in the hospitals of La Pelada, Sarmiento, Romang and Laguna Paiva, as well as in private clinics in the cities of Santa Fe and Santo Tomé.
“The false doctor also caused injuries to a woman who went to an aesthetic center in the provincial capital to have a facial treatment called peeling done,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.
The College of Physicians of the province reported that during the time in which the illicit acts were committed, there was no registered professional named after the accused.
Hurí used a stamp made to order with her name and a registration number that belongs to a real doctor who is in activity, with which she issued numerous type C invoices to collect professional fees.
On the other hand, the woman referred to a presumed professional title in a curriculum vitae and said that she had completed a residency at the Iturraspe hospital in the city of Santa Fe, data that was later proven to be false.